Infrastructure Malta is extending its shore-to-ship electricity network in Grand Harbour to include Dock 6 and Parlatorio Wharf at the dockyard, addressing complaints by Cottonera residents about ships keeping their engines running =all day.

The government agency said in a Facebook post that cable laying works at the Palumbo shipyard started this week.

The €50 million shore-to-ship network project was announced in 2018 as a measure to drastically reduce air pollution over Grand Harbour.

Works initially started at the other side of Grand Harbour, where cruise liners normally berth, enabling them to switch off their gas or heavy-fuel-oil fired engines and plug in to shore-side electricity points to power their services while they are berthed. The project is also being extended to various quays serving cargo vessels.

Back in 2018, Times of Malta had reported how the invisible cloud of toxins emanating from ships berthing in Grand Harbour cost the country more than €24 million in adverse side effects every year.  

Last month, a Cottonera activist group complained that three large passenger ships docked at the Cospicua shipyard had kept their engines running “day and night”, a claim disputed by one of the ship owners.

Activist group Azzjoni Tuna Artna Lura said the air quality in the area "has been abysmal", claiming that "in some areas clothes hung out to dry become discoloured by the polluted air."

"The situation is so dire, some residents are being forced to consider moving out of Cottonera altogether,”  it said. 

The coalition of NGOs and local residents noted that Infrastructure Malta has highlighted an EU study likening eight hours of a single cruise ship’s running engines to the emissions generated by 300,000 cars driving from Marsaxlokk to Ċirkewwa.